Czech police call for premier’s indictment in fraud case
May 31, 2021, 5:47 AM | Updated: 4:35 pm
PRAGUE (AP) — Czech police recommended again on Monday that Prime Minister Andrej Babis should be indicted over alleged fraud involving European Union subsidies.
Prague’s prosecution office said it has received the results of the updated police investigation into Babis’ possible involvement in the $2 million fraud. Prosecutors now have to decide whether to file charges against Babis or dismiss them.
Police already recommended the same two years ago but a prosecutor decided to drop the case. That decision was later overturned by the country’s chief prosecutor, Pavel Zeman, who said it was done prematurely and without enough evidence to press or drop the charges.
It wasn’t immediately clear when the prosecution might finish the reevaluation of the case. The file has 34,000 pages.
The case involves a farm that received EU subsidies after its ownership was transferred from the Babis-owned Agrofert conglomerate of around 250 companies to Babis’ family members. The subsidies were meant for medium-size and small businesses and Agrofert wouldn’t have been eligible for them.
Later, Agrofert again took ownership of the farm.
Babis, a populist billionaire, denies any wrongdoing.
Separately, a recently published European Union report concluded that Babis has a conflict of interest over EU subsidies involving his former business empire.
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